Book Six
by anniebethxchase
Summary: "The hardest part was afterwards. That's where our story really begins." The story of what comes next for our heroes, whether it be praetor-ship, a rescue mission, or senior year. Slightly au
1. Prolouge I

Leo wasn't about to budge. "Hazel, I thought we had already decided that I need to be alone when I set off the explosion."

"But if you're going to be up there alone, who's going to give you the antidote?" Hazel asked, her fingers tugging lightly at her cinnamon toast curls. Leo just grinned his trademark impish grin.

"What? I won't be alone. I'll have Festus! That's all the help I'll need."

Frank drew his eyebrows together. "How is a dragon supposed to administer-"

"Trust me Zhang, I've got it all figured out." Leo interrupted, tapping his finger to his temple.

Frank didn't look too reassured. "Still…"

Leo looked up from the scrap metal he'd been fiddling with and put his hand over his heart. "Aw, are you worried about me?"

Frank didn't find that funny. " _Of course_ I'm worried Leo! You're my friend! A-and now you want me- and Hazel- to help you steal a vial of Physician's Cure so when you die a fiery death, you can _maybe_ -"

Leo held his hands up to stop Frank, "Alright, alright man, jeez, just- follow me." Leo hesitated for a moment, beg ore leading them to the engine room, where the body of the rebuilt Festus was held. He climbed up into the saddle, and motioned for Frank and Hazel to join him.

"Why are we here?" Hazel asked.

"Look there. Do you see that?" Leo pointed to a scale a few inches away from them.

"It looks like a bronze scale. Like all the _other_ bronze scales," said Frank, and Hazel hummed in agreement.

Leo muttered something under his breath, something like _'Why can't they all be like Annabeth?'_ or possibly ' _Y cans the banana breath'._ Then he dug his nails under the scale and tugged. The scale slid to the side to reveal the space below it was hollowed out. In it was some sort of contraption.

"When I- uh, _die_ , this little syringe will pop up and stab me. Then bam! Leo's back, and on his way to Ogygia."

Frank and Hazel didn't say anything. Then Frank pulled out something from his pocket and handed it to Leo. A gold drachma. "If you make it, when you get off the island give us a call."

Leo took the coin and tucked it safely in his tool belt. "Yeah, definitely." Then he saw the worried expressions on his friends' faces. "I'm going to be okay. Don't even worry about it.

"Well, I guess this settles it," Hazel breathed. And the three of them sat together in silence.

..…..

Michael Kahale got a strange glint in his eye. Nico pushed Will behind him, anticipating an attack, but it never came. Michael grabbed Octavian. Octavian struggled, but it was futile.

"Kahale, what the hell are you doing?!"

"Sorry Octavian. Reyna's back."

..…..

The next day there weren't many answers.

After the explosion, Piper and Jason- free-falling and unconscious- were plucked out the sky by giant eagles and brought to safety, but Leo did not reappear. The entire Hephaestus cabin scoured the valley, finding bits and pieces of the _Argo IIs_ broken hull, but no sign of Festus the dragon or his master.

"Do you think he did it?" Hazel whispered.

Frank paused a moment before answering. "I don't know. I guess we'll have to wait and see."

"We have to tell them."

"Soon."

All the monsters had been destroyed or scattered. Greek and Roman casualties were heavy, but not nearly as bad as they could have been.

Overnight, the satyrs and nymphs disappeared into the woods for convocation of the Cloven Elders. In the morning Grover Underwood reappeared to announce that they could not sense the Earth Mother's presence. Nature was more or less back to normal. Apparently, Jason, Piper, and Leo's plan worked. Gaea had been separated from her source of power, charmed to sleep, and then atomized in the explosion of Leo's fire.

An immortal could never die, but now Gaea would be like her husband, Ouranos. The earth would continue to function as normal, just as the sky did, but Gaea was now so dispersed and powerless that she could never again form consciousness.

At least, that was the hope…

Octavian was locked up in the big house. As for Leo, all the campers could do was wait.

The victory celebration at camp was muted, due to grief- not just for Leo, but also for the many others who died in battle. Shrouded demigods, both Greek and Romanwere burned at the campfire, and Chiron asked Nico to oversee the burial rites. Nico agreed immediately.

The hardest part was afterwards.

And that's where our story really begins.

 **[AN]Okay, AN time: This is a continuation of the PJO/HoO storyline. (That's why I call it Book Six lmao). This first chapter was kind of a refresher for anyone who hadn't read the book in a while (which is why so much text was lifted directly from the book) and as a fix-it (because there were things I- and many others- didn't like lol). I'm going to try to update weekly, but I actually have today free so expect a couple updates SOON. Lucky you! So you should probably review. This chapter's questions: What do you want to see different? What do you want to see stay the same? Do you have a better name idea than Book Six? (idk I like the initials being BS but the name is kinda dull)**

 **-FR7**

 **Next time on Book Six: The 7* talk about Leo, and Percy and Annabeth meet and old friend.**

 ***I'm gonna call all the main demigods (Reyna, Nico, Frank, Hazel, Percy, Annabeth, Piper, etc) the 7 because I don't have time to write out all their names and shit [AN]**


	2. Prolouge II

_Last time on BS:_ _The hardest part was afterwards. That's where our story really begins._

The six demigods from the Argo II and Nico met on the porch of the Big House.

Jason hung his head, even his glasses lost in shadow. "We should have been there at the end. We could have helped Leo."

"It's not right," Piper agreed, wiping away her tears. "All that work getting the physician's cure, for _nothing_."

Hazel and Frank looked at each other, and decided it was time.

"Piper," Hazel's voice was soothing, and she rubbed small circles on her friend's back. "Where's the cure? Bring it out."

Piper went to pull the bottle out of her belt pouch, bewildered. All she found was the chamois cloth pouch, empty.

All eyes turned to Hazel.

"How?" Annabeth asked.

Frank put his arm around Hazel. "In Delos, Leo asked the two of us to help him."

Together they explained Leo's plan to kill Gaea and take the physician's cure.

"He wanted to do it alone. He thought that, since he's the son Hephaestus, he might survive the fire. He said he thought we'd understand the sacrifice, since we're Roman. But he knew the rest of you would never allow it."

At first the others looked angry, like they wanted to scream and throw things. But as Frank and Hazel kept talking, the rage seemed to dissipate. It was hard to be mad at Frank and Hazel when they were both crying. Also . . . the plan sounded exactly like the sneaky, twisted, ridiculously annoying and noble sort of thing Leo Valdez would do.

Finally Piper let out a sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh. "If he were here right now I would _kill_ him. How was he planning to take the cure? He was _alone_!"

Frank looked up at the group, with a sense of realization, "He had this machine rigged up to Festus that was supposed to do it for him." Hazel nodded.

"Then maybe he did it." Percy said. "This _is_ Leo we're talking about. He might come back any minute. Then we can take turns strangling him."

Hazel shook her head, "No- I mean, yes he might be alive, but he mentioned something about Ogygia. If he _is_ alive- and I think he is- he won't be back for a while."

Piper let out another half sob/half laugh. "That son of a bitch."

"He said he would IM." Frank added, not so helpfully.

There were a few chuckles, and the demigods fell into silence.

The silence was finally interrupted by Percy, "Holy crap. We did it." He ran his hand through his hair, looking absolutely stunned. "We actually did it!I need to sit down. No- I need to find Grover. Shit, I need to find my mom." Percy ran into the Big House.

"We defeat Gaea and the first thing Percy does is call his mom."

Annabeth shrugged and reclined back in her chair. "Honestly I'm surprised that he waited this long."

The other campers left to go put their affairs in order, except Annabeth who remained in her chair, looking out at the woods outside camp. She was deep in thought when from behind her a voice said, "Hey, Annabeth."

Annabeth sprung to her feet, and launched herself at a grinning Grover. She held him at arms length as if to examine him. "Gods, its been so long. How are you? How's Juniper? And Rachel-where's Rachel- oh, there she is! Hey Rachel! Anyway, how's the council? Are they listening to you? If they're not I swear I'll rip those old goats limb from-"

"Have I ever told you that you worry like an old mama goat?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You might have mentioned it once or twice. But seriously, how are you?"

"I'm good Annabeth. And so's Juniper, and everything else."

"Good. Aw, come here." So Annabeth pulled Grover in for another hug. Then he pulled up a chair to join her.

Percy jogged onto the big house's porch, visibly excited. "So, my mom is good. I talked to Chiron and I'm going up to see her in an hour. You could come with, if you wanna." He came to a stop behind Annabeth's chair and leaned down so his hands were on her armrests and head was hovering above hers. She tilted her head back to look at him, and he dropped a kiss on her forehead.

"That's adorable." Grover commented.

"G-man! You're here!" Percy scrambled towards the satyr, who stood up to hug him.

"Hey Perce!"

Percy swung an arm around Grover's shoulders, and let out a content sigh, exaggerated for Grover and Annabeth's amusement. "The gang is all back together. The dream squad- reunited!"

"Yeah, we're still not calling it that." Annabeth said, rolling her eyes. But she was smiling.

Grover shrugged, "I don't know, I think it's pretty catchy."

Annabeth rolled her eyes again and leaned back in her chair, "Well, that's too bad."

Grover laughed,"Ah Annabeth, I have missed you."

Annabeth grinned.

And for a little while, everything was perfect.

 **[AN] The dream squad is** ** _back_** **bitches. I'm beginning to really like this au. Like a lot. Well, only one or two more of the prologues, I think, and then I start with the POVs (No first person I promise). That means soon there will be no more stretches of text directly from the book. And longer chapters. And the fun plotlines begin (YAY) AND WE BEGIN TO DEVIATE FROM CANON ENTIRELY YASSS. Okay: Question: What character from the first series do you want to see show up? (Oh and all te old questions still apply. They're cumulative. And if you don't wanna answer a question in your review that's cool. Or if you wanna answer all of them, that's really cool. But if you don't review, I don't know about that. You're still a pretty cool person but that's not a cool move.)**

 **-FR7 (Oh and thanks Chocolatelover2001 for following. You rock!)**

 _Next time on BS: A shit ton happens. We meet up with Reyna, Piper, and Frank, who have a lot of shit to do. And also Nico has a confession to make._


	3. Reyna III

_Last time on BS: The Seven talk about Leo, and Percy and Annabeth meet an old friend._

REYNA III

REYNA WAS STARTING TO MISS CAMP JUPITER. She liked it in Camp Half Blood. She felt it had a certain charm to it. But charm fades quickly when you have to use a ping pong table as a command center.

"Do Greeks not have real tables?" Reyna asked. Frank was too polite to say anything, but she could tell he was wondering the same thing.

Piper looked around the room absently. "Oh, this is the rec room; we just use it for meetings and stuff sometimes."

The rec room. They were determining the future of their two camps, and possibly the world, in the recreation room of a summer camp. Reyna did her best not to scream.

"Uh, are you okay?" Frank asked. She nodded sharply, and gestured to the charts on the ping pong table.

"We need to decide _right now_ what we're going to do about the shields around this camp. Chiron has put up sentries for the moment but we are entirely vulnerable to attack."

Frank looked confused. "The attack already happened."

Reyna rolled her eyes and gripped the edge of the ping-pong table. " _Another_ attack. These woods are full of monsters, and we are virtually defenseless. Most of our fighters are wounded, the camp is in ruins, and some of the demigods still think Octavian is their leader."

Frank nodded. "Alright, well, who put up the defenses in the first place?"

Piper realized the question was directed at her. "Oh, uh, I don't know. The gods, maybe?"

Reyna swore under her breath. "Of course."

"Reyna?" She turned to look at Frank. "Are you alright?"

"What? Yeah, yeah I'm fine." She just waved away his concerns, but the fact the ping-pong table was now the only thing keeping her standing didn't help her case.

Frank went pale. "Oh my gods, are you bleeding?"

Reyna shook her head. "It's just a scratch. We need to focus."

"That looks like more than a scratch."

"We have more important things to worry about."

"Look, Reyna, we're not getting anything done. You're injured, Piper is distracted, and Annabeth isn't even here yet."

"I can still work."

"Just go to the infirmary and have them look at you. And Piper?" Piper looked up at the sound of her name. "Try to IrisMessage Leo again. I'll go talk to Chiron and the Hecate kids about the border. When Annabeth comes back we'll meet up again- _if_ the healer says you're fit to be moving around."

Reyna wanted to argue, but the look on Frank's face told her it would be pointless. She swung an arm around his shoulder like a human crutch and did her best not to think about the hundreds of monsters that could be lurking in the woods around them.

..…..

It didn't take that long to get Reyna a cot. She figured they realized that having the- no, _a_ Praetor of New Rome bleed out in the waiting room couldn't be good for morale.

A healer walked up to her and sat down on the stool next to her. "Hey, I'm Will. So, Reyna, what seems to be the problem?"

Before she could tell him that she was totally fine, Frank interrupted. "She got stabbed." Will nodded and wrote something in her chart before looking closer at her leg.

Reyna was glad that Frank was being more confident and assertive, really. And she only wanted to strangle him a teensy-weensy bit.

She looked at the boy sitting next to her. "What did you say your name was?"

The boy looked up at her, beaming, "Will. Will Sollace."

"Alright Sollace, let's bring it down a couple notches."

He just laughed. Then it clicked. "Wait- you're Nico's friend!"

This time Will didn't look up, and he might have been blushing. "Uh, yeah. I think."

Reyna took a second to process that. Then she leaned back in the cot, "You may proceed."

He looked confused, "I already was, but thanks."

"If you mess up, though, I'll kill you."

Will looked even more confused. "On your leg?"

Reyna rolled her eyes. "With Nico."

This time he was blushing for sure. "Yeah, uh, I don't think you need to worry about that. He hasn't even talked to me since the battle."

Reyna groaned. She was going to have to get involved. "Maybe he's expecting you to talk to him first."

Will peeked up at her, "You think?"

Reyna nodded. "Trust me on this."

Soon Will had her leg cleaned, stitched up, and bandaged.

"Don't put too much weight on it. I don't think we have any crutches left, but the satyrs are looking for some more. I'll let you know when they're done."

Reyna shook her head, "No need."

"Um, okay."

She hoisted herself to her feet, admittedly feeling much better. Feeling charitable, on her way out she told Will, "He likes you too."

Will almost dropped his clipboard.

..…..

"I thought we were waiting until Annabeth came back." Frank said, looking worried.

"Who knows when she'll be back. We'll wait for her to start reconstruction, but there's plenty we have to do first."

"Like what?"

"Like fix the border."

"Right, I talked to Chiron about that, and the Hecate cabin is working on it."

"What's the estimated time of completion?"

"I think tomorrow morning?"

Reyna sighed. "That will have to do."

"Annabeth will be back soon. We can IrisMessage her later."

Reyna looked over her list. "Well, there is still plenty for us to do."

"Except what?"

"We could take a census."

"Why?"

"As praetors it is our duty to keep thorough records, Zhang."

This time Frank rolled his eyes. "That sounds like it could wait."

Reyna banged her fist on the table in frustration, "There are people counting on me! I can't just _do nothing_!"

Frank looked a little shaken by her outburst, but he remained steadfast, "Reyna, if you just take a little break, it'll be okay. You're not the only one in charge anymore."

Reyna sighed. She wondered when Frank had stopped being totally terrified of her. She also wondered if it was a good thing he wasn't scared of her anymore.. "At least check that the infirmary is stocked."

"Yes ma'am."

If anyone else had called her ma'am she would have assumed it was sarcasm. But it was Frank.

Just then, Piper burst through the door, leaving it flapping on its hinges. Reyna looked up, bewildered.

"I went to go IM Leo, and- oh gods- you won't believe it!"

 **[AN] Wow I wonder what happened. Guess you'll have to read the next chapter. I had so much fun with this chapter ngl. Pissed!Reyna is great. (Any Reyna is great tbh) Review! Well, that's all for today.**

 _Next time on BS: We find out what Piper's been up to._


End file.
